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As deputy of the Samurai-dokoro, Kajiwara Kagetoki presided over ceremonies and yabusame rituals at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and stood beside Yoritomo at every major rite. In the 2nd month of 1189 it was here that he represented Yoritomo in petitioning the court for an edict to hunt down Yoshitsune. Yet after the Soga brothers' revenge in 1193, it was also here that his denunciations are said to have triggered the hunt for Noriyori.

In the 4th intercalary month of 1189 (Bunji 5), Minamoto no Yoshitsune was attacked by Fujiwara no Yasuhira at Koromogawa-no-tachi in Hiraizumi and took his own life. His severed head, preserved in fine sake, was conveyed to Koshigoe by Nitta Kaja Takahira. On the 13th day of the 6th month, Kajiwara Kagetoki served alongside Wada Yoshimori as chief witness at the official head inspection — the Azuma Kagami records this day with the entry 'Yoshimori, Kagetoki, etc. inspected at Koshigoe Bay.' Barred from entering Kamakura, Yoshitsune was never brought before Yoritomo himself, but disposed of after the verification by these two elders alone. Kagetoki had once fought beside Yoshitsune at Ichi-no-Tani, Yashima, and Dan-no-Ura, but, serving as army magistrate, had bitterly opposed him since the famous 'reverse-oars debate' at Yashima; the Heike Monogatari attributes the slander that began Yoshitsune's downfall to him. For Kagetoki, then, the head inspection at Koshigoe was the ritual closure of a fate he had himself set in motion. Years later in 1249 (Hoji 3), local tradition holds that Yoshitsune's head drifted up the Sakai River to this very site, and Shirahata Jinja was established here to console the tragic hero — so that, with cruel irony, the man whose downfall Kagetoki had hastened came to be enshrined as the guardian deity of Fujisawa.

In the 2nd month of 1184 (Genryaku 1), Katsuo-ji lost its halls to the conflagration of the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani, ignited by Minamoto no Yoshitsune's surprise assault on the Heike. For Yoritomo, restoring war-damaged ancient temples in western Japan was a key project to assert his legitimacy as warrior leader, and in 1188 (Bunji 4) he ordered the reconstruction of Katsuo-ji, appointing Kumagai Naozane and Kajiwara Kagetoki as joint magistrates of the works. By this date Kagetoki already served as Samurai-dokoro shoshi (deputy commissioner of the Board of Retainers), overseeing the eastern gokenin — being entrusted with rebuilding a great monastic complex in distant Settsu Province testifies to Yoritomo's confidence in him as both administrator and treasurer. The Azuma Kagami records this work as part of 'the restoration of temples and shrines in the western provinces,' with Kagetoki and Naozane managing fundraising, materials procurement, and the supervision of master carpenters. The reconstruction of Katsuo-ji thus reveals a side of Kagetoki often obscured by his reputation as a warrior — that of the administrative officer who underpinned the cultural and religious policy of the Minamoto regime. Portions of the Kamakura-period restoration survive in the precincts, and from this era onward Katsuo-ji's halls drew samurai devotion as the renowned 'Temple of Victory.'

In the 8th month of 1193 (Kenkyu 4), false rumors of Yoritomo's death during the Soga brothers' revenge incident at Mount Fuji reached Kamakura. Seeking to console Yoritomo's wife Masako, Minamoto no Noriyori is said to have remarked, 'So long as I, Noriyori, stand by you, the realm is secure' — words Yoritomo, upon his return, took as evidence of treasonous ambition. Noriyori was confined at Shuzen-ji in Izu (one tradition holds it was this very Segasaki villa), and on the 17th of that month Kajiwara Kagetoki was dispatched at Yoritomo's order to attack him. The Azuma Kagami and the Horyaku-kanki record Kagetoki as the leader of the assault, and Noriyori is said to have taken his own life on the 24th. Once Kagetoki had fought alongside the Noriyori-Yoshitsune brothers at Ichi-no-Tani, Yashima, and Dan-no-Ura to destroy the Heike — yet, backed by Yoritomo's trust and serving as Samurai-dokoro shoshi (deputy commissioner), he became the agent who pursued first Yoshitsune and then Noriyori to their deaths, cutting down the Genji clan from within. The temple is said to have been founded on the grounds of Noriyori's villa, enshrining his personal image of Yakushi Nyorai, so that the site itself testifies to the tragedy of the Genji lineage extinguished by Kagetoki's hand. Kagetoki himself, only six years after Noriyori's death, was driven from Kamakura by a joint indictment signed by 66 gokenin in 1199 (Shoji 1), and was killed at Kitsunezaki in Suruga in 1200 — bringing the Kajiwara clan, too, to extinction.

Kajiwara Kagetoki founded this Goryo Shrine at Kajiwara — his clan's home territory — in Kenkyū 1 (1190), enshrining his ancestor Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasa. He was himself expelled from Kamakura in 1200 after 66 lords signed a mass denunciation, and died in battle at Kiyomi Barrier with 23 clansmen. His tragic end made him a subject of goryo belief: he was later enshrined as co-deity alongside the very ancestor he had venerated — the shrine's founder became one of the shrine's own deities.